From The Flickr Pool: Stumped

Here’s the thing: I know this is going to be bad. You know this is going to be bad. Reader Jer*ry knew it was going to be bad. We know that because everyone of us has been there. Basically it’s the luck of the draw that a stiff wind, shifting trailers, or some other slight alignment issue doesn’t topple this stump outright.

If by some chance it goes well, it’ll be a funny story. If it goes badly it will be a really great story with witnesses and a hospital bill, property damage and scars. You hope it’s not, but much like the time Chuck and I managed to drop an anvil on my leg, the worse the damage the better it’ll be around the coffee machine.

You do what you gotta do…. When I was moving stuff into one of those storage things they bring to your door, I was kinda stuck, because my help had gone away, and I had to put my Atlas horizontal mill up on a table. So I looked around, and found a pry bar and a hydraulic floor jack. There were a couple sketchy moments, but it worked.

I’ll admit I’ve done some questionable things in the past but the consequences of failure were much less severe than this. It might’ve been a bruised limb or a dented tool but nothing requiring a hospital visit or a crane. All the broken pieces of cement block seem to suggest he’s used up a few lives already. If the photographer is reading this, I’m sure we’d All like to hear the whole story here.

Reminds me of dumb things my dad has done. Like welding without a mask and driving home blind afterwards (had to stop and feel his way to a gas station, call my mother to pick him up.) Or trim a tree branch with a latter resting on said branch. Not the part he was cutting off, but the bounch once it released would have knocked him off. The pro tree trimmer that was out neighbor almost had a heart attack when he saw it. He has trimmed the trees for free ever since.

As usual, so much in a thoughtless hurry that they waste massive amounts of time with blocks and jacks instead of just doing it the right way first time, either by pulling it up with a crane or winch and a decent set of ratchet straps or chain securing the load.

A stump that big, with the right kind of trimming using a chainsaw, just rolls like a ball. Back a trailer up the sloped driveway or to the curb, and roll it on, strap it down, then roll it off when it gets to where it’s going.

It’s sad that people insist on raising things several feet to the level of a raised pickup bed from the lowest possible point, rather than making it easier on themselves, and safer, by backing up to a point where the ground is closer, and using a ramp to take care of the rest.

Pic looks like a bad idea anyway. Not just the blocks and jackstands, but putting a stump that big and heavy in the back of a Tacoma? Hope it’s got a V6. And some add-a-leafs or some other heavy duty load carrying mods.

I agree, that pickup is not up to the job. Bad ideas include the cinder blocks, starting from the lowest point possible, and the sneakers. But also, leaving the tailgate on strikes me as particularly dumb.

Doable with these conditions: appropriate truck; higher, but flat, starting point; tailgate removed; professional-quality ratcheting straps around the trunk for the winch to pull on; a 2 ton come-along winch attached to the front of the bed, after the front is braced from side to side with a 2X4; jack stands; hydraulic jacks; levers; a supply of 2X6s to build a square base as the stump is raised; one safety officer/observer; two or so lever operators; one base assembler (the guy with the best health insurance).

Steve Says:
…trim a tree branch with a ladder resting on said branch. Not the part he was cutting off, but the bounce once it released would have knocked him off…

My brother did that with an elm branch so heavy that his ladder went from two foot above the branch to free-standing, soon free-falling. He hung on long enough to choose his landing spot. But, unlike Steve’s prediction, he wasn’t knocked off.

Finally, some unanswered questions:

Where’s the dirt?
How’d the stump get cut away from the roots? (Not by those guys, I think)
How’d it get pulled out of the ground?
And why not load it as part of the same operation?